Medical students’ views of power in doctor–patient interactions: the value of teacher–learner relationships Sara Donetto CONTEXT This paper aims to contribute to the important, and relatively underexplored, area of medical education research that seeks to illuminate the value and meaning of relation- ships in the undergraduate education of doc- tors. Here I present new empirical material in which I ground my reflections on some ways in which teacher–learner relationships can help address medical students’ often uncritical views of professional practice. The views I illustrate are of particular significance as they contrast sharply with the participative models of practice promoted by current policy, professional and educational discourses. METHODS My reflections stem from the anal- ysis of data I generated for a larger, broadly ethnographic study exploring students’ approaches to their future role as practitioners in one UK medical school. I draw upon this larger body of data and focus here on two examples in particular of the more general uncritical readings of medical professionalism I encountered at Sundown Medical School (an invented name), namely: students’ often reductive views of medical power, and their simplistic formulations of patient education. DISCUSSION I argue for the need to foster richer and more critical understandings of professional power and knowledge among stu- dents and educators, and suggest here that teacher–learner interactions could have an important role in fostering such richer under- standings. I argue that teacher–learner rela- tionships can model some of the dynamics of the practitioner–patient interaction and thus provide useful opportunities for closer and more critical analysis of power, education and knowledge in the medical school classroom as well as in the consultation room. CONCLUSIONS I suggest that effective inte- gration of participative and critical pedagogical strategies in medical curricula and more struc- tured involvement of patients in the role of teachers may represent valuable strategies for the development of learning relationships that better promote reflexive and collaborative forms of professionalism. power in professional practice Medical Education 2010: 44: 187–196 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03579.x Department of Education and Professional Studies, King’s College London, London, UK Correspondence: Sara Donetto, Department of Education and Professional Studies, Franklin Wilkins Building, King’s College London, Waterloo Road, London SE1 9NH, UK. Tel: 00 44 20 7848 3179; Fax: 00 44 20 7848 3182; E-mail: sara.donetto@kcl.ac.uk ª Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2010. MEDICAL EDUCATION 2010; 44: 187–196 187